People love to complain about year-end lists as if they’re some kind of lamentable cultural phenomenon that should be abolished. I can understand some measure of complaint, but we all have personally-limited cultural radars and I always get turned on to records or books or whatevers through these lists that bypassed my own. It’s also a good way for me to go back through everything I’ve encountered during the year, re-engage with it and assess how the material has held up.

At first I wasn’t going to actually rank a “top ten” but it ended up nearly ordering itself (the top seven at least). A solid list of honorable mentions also developed and while I considered doing a list of stinkers and disappointments, I decided that was a bit catty and unnecessary. If something is missing from this list it’s either because I didn’t like it or I simply haven’t had a chance to hear and process it (for example: Rwake, Deafheaven, Bosse-de-Nage). And as a companion piece to this, I’m also compiling a list of older records that I heard for the first time in 2011. Continue reading →